"When the Time Comes" is a very good film with a strong theme usually neglected by a majority, thought-out and discussed by some but executed by a few:
the right of choosing your death by assisted suicide. It's highly controversial and films such as this, "Right of Way" (1983), "Million Dollar Baby" and others
have made their case to audiences - with some progresses over the years.
Bonnie Bedelia stars as a young happily married woman who after learning she's terminally
decides she won't endure months of pain and suffering and instead she decides to leave in her own terms. While her husband (Terry O'Quinn) is opposed to the idea
of assisted death, her best friend (Brad Davis) is the one who becomes her greatest ally despite strong objections. The film finds its heart in that relation of
trust, their strong bond over the years to the point they know better each other than with the husband/friend of the man. The perfect balance is found with those
characters where things never go painfully hard to watch neither developed with weaknesses. Davis, Bedelia and O'Quinn are all great performers who find ways
to make everything believable in spite of TV movie limitations of its period which makes some things go too fast and too slow at times - the right rhythm for
the script is hard to get and feel.
The film never gets too deep into moral, religion or politics, it's all rooted with the most simple and basic of elements: the human level of people who know
each other too well and are conflicted with the situation that's presented to them even though death is at bay but a choice can be made: to suffer and let others
suffer along with you; or to rush things as suffer the least possible but leaving the burden on someone's conscience behind. It's a movie that can bring a good
debate about it, a conversation on those issues as well without getting too much heated.
Depressive and thoughtful, real yet too simplistic in some things (the trip to Mexico could be a little worked over, it was too easy and not much
truthful), but the film works with dealing with strong themes. It was sensible, touching without falling into excessive heaviness. I recommend it. 7/10
The saddest tragic part would come years after its release when of star Brad Davis death in early 1990's. HIV positive for many years and probably knowing
he wouldn't get better he opted for this exact way out. In this crazed twist of fate where the fiction caught up with him, as I was watching it knowing what I knew about him I kept thinking how much of working in this film, researching all the information his character gets, he remembered.
With an opinion formed or not (between 1987 and 1992), this film was one he had to remember in some ways more than his best known film "Midnight Express" or
all the others. It just makes me wonder...
